4.4 Generalities about the toolbars 

1.  The buttons of the toolbars of CAS are distributed in five groups : launching, documentation, common tests, special tests and buttons under test. The first two groups (launching and documentation) are always present in a toolbar, the third (common tests) is present if and only if an executable version of the software is present on the CD-ROM.
2.  The buttons of the first group (launching) serve to launch the program if there is an executable version for Windows, to indicate the status of the CAS otherwise. For example, for Xmaxima (group Alg-2), the button XMAXIMA5.9 (Fig. 8.1) serves to launch Maxima in its graphic interface Xmaxima. For CLN (group Alg-2), which is a library for computer algebra and not a program, the button CLN (Fig. 8.8) doesn't launch anything, and the bubble of commentary of this button indicates CLN - Pas de version exécutable pour Windows (CLN - No executable version for Windows).

   When there is a version for Windows executable in a command window, there are also two other buttons, in general, one to launch Emacs ( EMACS/ast ), the other to launch the program in a shell of Emacs (for ex.   Epari to launch the program Pari, cf. Fig. 8.3). The name of the button is constituted of the name of the program in lower-case letters, preceded by the letter E (for Emacs), possibly complemented by the version number (for ex.  Emaxima5.5 and Emaxima5.9 for the versions 5.5 and 5.9.0 of Maxima, cf. sec. 7.9).

   There may also be one or several buttons corresponding to a configuration file (for ex.  userinit.coc for the CoCoA program, cf. Fig. 7.3). To have information about their exact significance, refer to the corresponding section in one of the chapters 7 to 9.

3.  The buttons of the second group (documentation), that follow the button << Doc>> , are used for displaying the documentation of the CAS. There are always in principle two buttons, one pointing toward the web site ( Site web ) the other pointing toward a copy of the web site on the CD-ROM ( Loc web ). If you are connected to Internet, use the first button, otherwise use the second. In this case, the welcome page is always displayed but it can happen that some or all links are inactive.

   When an user's manual is available, the group Doc includes a button Manuel . When a tutoriel is available, the group includes a button Tutoriel .

4.  The buttons of the third group (common tests), that follow the button << Tests com>> , are six of them. The first three ( 1+2 , 2*3 and 2^10 ) permit to verify that the elementary operations (addition, multiplication, exponentiation) work well. The fourth and fifth buttons ( 1/3+3/4 and 100! ) permit to verify that the software does more that a plain minicalculator (the fractions are manipulated as such and not as real numbers, and the calculations can be made with an arbitrary precision and not with a fixed number of digits). Expressed with the syntax of Maxima, the tests are the following:

   Operation	Example	Maxima command
   Addition	1 + 2	1+2;
   Multiplication	2 × 3	2*3;
   Exponentiation	210	2^10;
   Addition of fractions	+	1/3+3/4;
   Factorial	100!	100!;

   The sixth button, Quitter , permits to quit normally the program (once one entered into a program, it is important to know how to leave it normally, without having to kill the process).

   When moving the the cursor over a button, the message displayed on the strip (or in the bubble of info, if the toolbar is active) indicates the command to type. For example, when moving the cursor over the button 100 ! of the toolbar of Maxima, the message is << 100!; (calculer factorielle 100 dans Maxima)>> (calculate factorial 100 in Maxima). When moving it over the button 100 ! of the toolbar of CoCoA, the message is << Fact(100); ( calculer factorielle 100 dans CoCoA)>> (calculate factorial 100 in CoCoA).

   Most these buttons are usable in a shell of Emacs, under Windows 9x or Windows NTx. We saw it with Maxima in the section 4.1. A lot of these buttons are also usable in a command window of Windows NTx (but not of Windows 9x) after having selected Rosetta as title of the destination window, in the dialog box Options of the assistant (cf.  Manuel of assistant AsTeX). To check it, make the modification above (i.e. click on the assistant's button , then on the element Rosetta in the pull down list Titre de la fenętre (Title of the window) and finally on the button Confirmer), launch Macaulay in a command window with the help of the button MACAULAY , click then on the buttons 1+2 , 2*3 etc.

5.  The buttons of the fourth group (special tests), that follow the button << Tests spec>> correspond to specific tests for the software of the toolbar. The first buttons (development and factorisation) permit to verify that the software can manipulate some symbols and not only numbers. They separate programs for numeric calculations from CAS. The following buttons (derivation, integration) permit to separate general purpose CAS from specialized CAS. For example, the toolbar of Maxima, general purpose CAS, contains a button integrate corresponding to the calculation of an indefinite integral. The toolbar of CoCoA on the other hand doesn't contain such a button because it is specialized in commutative algebra. Expressed with the syntax of Maxima, the tests are the following:

   Operation	Example	Maxima command
   Expansion of an algebraic expression	(a + b)2	expand((a+b)^2);
   Factorisation	Factorise 1 + 2x + x2	factor(1+2*x+x^2);
   Derivation	sin(x)	diff(sin(x),x);
   Integration	sin(x)dx	integrate(sin(x),x);

   The document rosetta.tex (cf.  sec 4.10) can suggest some more common tests.

6.  The buttons of the fifth group (buttons under test) follow the button << Tests btns>> . They regroup various buttons, under test. When a button of a toolbar is not correct or not checked, its title ends by a question mark. For example, Site web? indicates that the address used in the button is not correct, or is not maybe the best. You can add personal buttons in this group (cf. sec. 4.8 and Manuel of assistant AsTeX).